The present disclosure relates to tissue support structures, such as tissue scaffolds. For example, the disclosure relates to curved minimal surface tissue scaffolds.
Millions of surgical procedures requiring tissue substitutes to repair or replace malfunctioning tissues are performed worldwide every year. The ever widening gap between the demand and supply of transplant tissues has resulted in seeking natural and biomimetic solutions to address tissue deficiency problems. Autografting, allografting, synthetic prosthetic application, and tissue engineering techniques represent current options for these clinical needs.
Autografting involves harvesting a tissue from one location in the patient and transplanting it to another part of the same patient. Though autologous grafts typically produce the best clinical results, primarily due to minimal rejection, they have several associated problems including procurement morbidity, additional surgical cost for the harvesting procedure, and infection and pain at the harvesting site.
Allografts involve harvesting tissue or organs from a donor and then transplanting it to the patient. Minor immunogenic rejection, risk of disease transmission, and shortage of donors severely limits allografts.
Tissue engineering involves regenerating damaged or malfunctioning organs using cells, biomolecules, and synthetic or natural scaffolds. Tissue engineering involves regenerating damaged or malfunctioning organs from the recipient's own cells. The cells are placed in a tissue culture where they multiply. Once enough number of cells are produced the cells are embedded on a carrier material, scaffold, that is ultimately implanted at the desired site. Since many isolated cell populations can be expanded in vitro using cell culture techniques, only a small number of healthy cells is necessary to prepare such implants. On implantation and integration, blood vessels attach themselves to the new tissue, the scaffold dissolves, and the newly grown tissue eventually blends in with its surroundings. This technology has been effectively used to create various tissue analogs including skin, cartilage, bone, liver, nerve, and vessels.
In spite of the projected benefits of engineered tissues, the percentage share of tissue engineered grafts has not increased tremendously. This is partly due to existing technical hurdles.